looked outwards;
attracted traders and teachers;
acquired capital;
sent students to the University of Nova Roma on the nearby human colony planet, Aeneas;
bought spaceships;
employed human beings for their technical expertise;
explored Gray scientifically and for its colonization prospects.

One spaceship left about a hundred explorers, Ythrian and human, who made base on the largest continent, later Corona, then dispersed across Gray. From a camp on the southern shore, a boat containing:

the Ythrian, Enherrian, and his wife, Whell;
their son, Rusa, and daughter, Arrach;
the Aenean, Peter Berg, and his wife, Olga -

- departed to explore immense floating islands of interwoven vegetation grazed by large marine animals. Olga named the vegetation "atlantis weed" and the animals were later called "krakens." Everything summarized so far builds up to a tragic experience for these four Ythrians and two human beings.